


Homework

by BrosleCub12



Category: Beautiful People (UK)
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-29
Updated: 2010-12-29
Packaged: 2017-10-14 05:08:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/145703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrosleCub12/pseuds/BrosleCub12
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mickey hates silence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Homework

He knows Simon’s a real friend when he asks him over to Kylie’s house after school. No-one else has done that for him so far – well, apart from the odd girl who clutches hold of his arm, bats her eyelashes and scares him right out of his skin. As flattering as it is to know that people think he’s good-looking, he’s already had to find several excuses why he doesn’t really like to spend time with girls that way.

It’s getting kind of wearing, to be honest.

But after everything, after how he treated Simon... only to be invited to spend more time with him, he feels trusted again, like he’s fully reformed from all the bad stuff. He’s a complete stranger to Simon and Kylie’s ways and can only sit on the bed watching as, on their Music homework assignment to find a song with a catchy harmony and melody, they need no second bidding to start snapping through Kylie’s soundtrack collection of _The Wizard of Oz._ But that doesn’t make it any less cool; hell, Mickey enjoys adding fuel to the fire by asking if either of them have seen _Starlight Express_ and he feels so included when they ask him all about it and make him promise to bring the soundtrack over the next time they all get together.

At one point, Kylie leaves to fetch them all juice (‘I need my performance mojo, girlfriend’) and Mickey can feel the air change when the door clicks shut behind them. Simon just smiles at him, suddenly looking as nervous as Mickey feels, and puts a little too much attention on the star he’s idly sketching on the corner of his notebook, complete with an arrow and the word ‘Me!’ next to it.

Mickey hates silence, has hated it ever since that letter he wrote was read out in class back at his old school and he had to stare down at the desk for the rest of the lesson because it was the only way to avoid everyone’s heavy eyes _(so heavy, so solid, couldn’t go through that again, didn’t WANT to)_ and the only way to hide his tears _(‘Awh, look, ‘e’s crying, the great big massive bender!’)._ Somehow, saying nothing just seems just as bad as the taunts that he’s ‘one of them batty-boys.’ It’s just... _everything_ hostile, everything that makes him feel no more than a foot high. Worse, maybe. At least when people are _talking,_ he has an idea of who to avoid and who to trust - even though he turned it all upside down... what he did.

Really, right now, all he knows is this: he trusts Simon, but right now he needs a clue – something, anything – to know what to do because Simon’s actually _clever_ with this sort of thing. And when he notices that the star is getting the heavy-lead treatment, becoming blacker with every press of the pencil, he decides that’s probably enough and puts his hand over his, not trying to alarm him, but just to get his attention, that’s all.

It’s just _skin..._ fingers and joints and the soft stretch of the thumb and although he knows what it’s like to hold a hand, he never... Gosh. It’s _warm._

He has no clue what he’s doing; all the other people in their school seem to have it all sussed (especially Ashlene) but then again, they do particular things that he’s never taken an interest in. Yet Simon and Kylie don’t quite fit in. He knows he noticed them both in the first place because they stood out, boldly, from the crowd, without a care in the world and because they made him smile for the first time since arriving at the school.

And seeing Simon smile back was even better.

He shifts closer, wondering, hoping that Simon will take it from there because he’s a little more honest with himself than Mickey is. And they need to face this because although they’re alright with each other, really, there’s something else there, something he needs to know about.

‘Are you okay?’ he asks, unsure what else to ask and it seems to ‘spoil’ the mood, like he’s not supposed to say anything just then. As Simon nods, offering him another smile, he can’t help thinking how weird it is, that you can go from bullying someone to wanting to look after them but then again maybe it’s obvious right there in the question.  
He feels weird, feeling so nervous and maybe that’s the price to pay for being expected as a – a lady-killer. Also, Kylie could be the ambulance this time around; it doesn’t exactly take forever to get juice and who knows when they’ll next be alone, in private? He doesn’t think he can wait for the next snatch of time with just the two of them and it’s already a given that they can’t do this at school, simply because he doesn’t want the outside world intruding and that feeling’s a little overwhelming in itself.

He puts a hand on Simon’s shoulder because it’s what friends do, friends always do that and it might make him feel better. For Mickey though, it just makes it all the more real. He knows what he wants to do – although in a way, he doesn’t want to do it, he just wishes there could be another way that could make him feel less scared – but he likes Simon, he really does and if he got the guts to try and kiss him once, then...

It’s slow and it’s clumsy, their lips bumping together in all the wrong places. But Simon doesn’t pull away and Mickey spies him shutting his eyes right before their lips touch and that tells him it’s alright and he’s allowed, because you do that when you want to kiss someone and it’s what they did last time. This time, he can’t help feeling proud of himself because they actually took the extra step without either of them falling off anywhere and anyway, Simon isn’t some fire-breathing monster who’s going to tear him to pieces; he’s just another boy. To some it might feel weird, but to Mickey it just feels natural, more natural than kissing the odd girl he’s tried to go with in the past.

Simon’s lips are soft – so soft, so kind – and he grasps Mickey’s shoulder in return which makes it feel equalised in the way they’re holding each other and then Mickey gets really bold, because if they got this far, surely it’s alright if he reaches up with his other hand to hold his face. It’s only when his chest starts feeling constricted and he realises he needs a little room to breathe that he has to gently pull back.

‘It’s alright,’ he says, the words tripping over his tongue and he’s not sure if he means it as a reassurance to Simon or himself or both of them but if he says that, then won’t it be? Simon stares at him, held by his hands on his shoulders and his mouth becomes crooked as he bites his lower lip and even as Mickey is thinking it looks kind of gorgeous, he’s leaning forward and planting another gentle kiss on his mouth. Unexpected, but really... really _nice._

It’s new and they both know it but it’s also normal. It just feels like that; like it’s ticking all the right boxes. And as the door is thrown open and Kylie delivers three glasses of Ribena and Cranberry with the instruction to drink as if it were cocktails, he coins the shy grin on Simon’s face and he knows it mirrors exactly his own.

Half an hour later, Simon leaves for a toilet break and as soon as he’s out the door, Mickey finds himself shoved onto his back on the bed with Kylie standing over him, looking as threatening as any four foot diva can.

‘Alright, so you got back in his good books – but then for some weird reason you never really left ‘em,’ he sneers down at Mickey, hand on hip as he leans in, eyes intent.

‘But just to warn you,’ he holds up an index finger and takes several jabs at the air in front of Mickey’s face, ‘mess us around again, and I won’t rest until I have personally got you banned from every single theatre in the West End.’

The silence is shattered by the single gulp in Mickey’s throat.

‘Do I make myself clear?’ Kylie asks, raising an eyebrow.

‘Crystal,’ Mickey responds and behind that word is a lot of genuine truth; he can’t remember the last time he meant anything quite so much. Kylie, apparently satisfied, gives a superior sort of smirk before settling down beside him, one leg over the other with a flourish.

‘Brilliant, girlfriend. You’re finally gettin’ the hang of it.’

The door opens, announcing Simon’s return as Mickey gives a nod.

‘I know,’ he replies – but his eyes are on Simon’s face as he says it.

*


End file.
